’By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.  If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.  If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy,’ Psalm cxxxvii. 1, 5, 6.

Yet, strange to say, although the Jews were longing for the Holy City all the time they were in captivity, when they did return to their native land, and it was possible once more to live in Jerusalem, they seem to have preferred any other place before it.  It was the most difficult thing to get any of them to consent to take up their abode in the capital.

Nehemiah found himself face to face with this difficulty when he had finished the repairs of the city.  The rubbish was cleared away, the walls were built, the gates were set up, the fortresses were strengthened, but the city itself was nowhere.  Here and there houses were scattered about, here and there was a group of buildings, but inside the walls were many great empty spaces, large pieces of unoccupied ground.

The walls had been set up on the old sites, and were about four miles in circumference.  It was a large space to fill, and, as Nehemiah looked round, he saw that whilst the city was imposing from without, it was a bare, miserable place inside.

’The city was large and great; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.’

Not only so, not only was the city unsightly, but there were not enough inhabitants to protect the walls.  In case of an attack, what would be done?  Four miles of wall was a long space to guard and defend, how could more hands be secured?  It was absolutely necessary that Jerusalem should have a larger population.

Yet Nehemiah found that no one wished to move from the country places round, and to come into Jerusalem.  Every town, every village in Judea was more popular than the capital.  They had rather live in sultry Jericho than on the mountain heights of Jerusalem; they preferred stony Bethel to the vine-clad hills of the City of God; they had rather live in the tiny insignificant village of Anathoth than in the capital itself.

Why was this?  Why had the Jews of Nehemiah’s day such an objection to living in Jerusalem?  Why, after longing for Jerusalem all the time of the captivity, did they shrink from it on their return?

The reason was this.  Jerusalem had become the point of danger.  All round the returned captives were enemies.  The Samaritans, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, and a host of others were ready at any moment to pounce down upon the Jews.  In case of an attack from their united forces, what would be the mark at which all these enemies would aim?  What place would have to bear the whole force of the attack?  Jerusalem itself.  They would pass by Jericho, Bethel, and Anathoth, as places beneath their notice, but they would all make for Jerusalem.  To live in the capital was consequently to live in constant danger and in constant fear.  So it is not to be wondered at that they avoided it, and that they settled down in the villages and left the capital to take care of itself.